Critical to note, and as we had previously reported on in our 28 January 2013 report “Obama Plan For World War III Stuns Russia,” the Federal Security Services (FSB) confirmed the validity of the released hacked emails of the British based defense company, Britam Defense that stunningly warned the Obama regime was preparing to unleash a series of attacks against both Syria and Iran in a move Russian intelligence experts warned could very well cause World War III.

According to this FSB report, Britam Defence, one of the largest private mercenary forces in the world, was the target of a “massive hack” of its computer files by an “unknown state sponsored entity” this past January who then released a number of critical emails between its top two executives, founder Philip Doughty and his Business Development Director David Goulding.

The two most concerning emails between Doughty and Goulding, this report says, states that the Obama regime has approved a “false flag” attack in Syria using chemical weapons, and that Britam has been approved to participate in the West’s warn on Iran, and as we can read:

Email 1: Phil, We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington. We’ll have to deliver a CW (chemical weapon) to Homs (Syria), a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have. They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record. Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion? Kind regards David

Email 2: Phil, Please see attached details of preparatory measures concerning the Iranian issue. Participation of Britam in the operation is confirmed by the Saudis.

As Syria itself has warned that should it be attacked by the West there will be “global chaos,” the Western peoples themselves have not been told of the fact that on 17 May 2013, Putin ordered Russian military forces to “immediately move” from Local War to Regional War operational status and to be “fully prepared” to expand to Large-Scale War should either the US or EU enter into the Syrian Civil War, a situation they are still in at this very hour.

With Putin’s previous order, and as we had reported on in our 17 May report “Russia Issues “All-Out War” Alert Over Syria,” and now combined with his new ordering of massive retaliatory strikes against Saudi Arabia, any attack on Syria is viewed by Russia as being an attack on itself…..”

Mon Jun 3, 2013 3:25pm ESTComments Off on $MSFT to Restructure Into a Device and Service Company229

“Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is working to restructure the software company to be more focused on providing “devices and services,” according to a report.

The changes will likely include a shake-up of some top executives, according to an All Things D report, which cited sources close to the situation.

Satya Nadella, president of the servers and tools division; Tony Bates, president of Skype; and Don Mattrick, president of the interactive entertainment business, may get expanded roles from the revamp, according to the report.

However, sources also said that the changes are still being figured out and could shift at any time, according to the report….”

“(Reuters) – Satellite operator DirecTV and two other bidders have offered more than $1 billion apiece to buy Hulu, a source with knowledge of the bidding process said on Friday, increasing the likelihood that owners News Corp and Walt Disney Co will be able to shed the video streaming service they failed to sell in 2011.

Hulu board members, who are being advised by Guggenheim Partners on the auction, fielded at least seven buyout offers last week, the source said.

That number will be whittled down in the next two or three weeks, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the process was private.

It was unclear which two other bidders offered $1 billion for Hulu. The service has more than 4 million subscribers and generates revenue of about $700 million through subscriptions and a free ad-supported service.

The proposed price tag heightens the likelihood that News Corp and Disney will find an acceptable offer price, which was the sticking point of the 2011 round of buyout negotiations….”

Thu May 9, 2013 9:15am ESTComments Off on $FB Said to Be Buying Waze, A Social Mapping/ Traffic App, For $1B346

“Facebook appears to be close to makinganother billion-dollar acquisition to once again ramp up its mobile efforts: according to three reports in the Israeli press at Calcalist and sister publication Ynet andThe Marker (all in Hebrew), Facebook has approached Waze, the social mapping and traffic app maker, and is now in advanced due dilligence on a deal that Calcalist puts at between $800 million and $1 billion. The negotiations between the social network and crowdsourced mapping app apparently began six months ago.

We have been digging too and have picked up confirmation from a source that both sides have privately confirmed that the deal is happening, and that the pricing reported first by the Calcalist is accurate. The main issue right now, the source said, is whether to keep Waze in Israel or take it to the U.S., as Facebook did with two previous Israel acqusitions. Those were of feature phone interface developer Snaptu (bought for up to $70 million in March 2011) and facial recognition specialistFace.com (bought in June 2012 for $50-60 million).

But! Facebook and Waze have already come back to us with flat non-responses. “We do not comment on rumors or speculation about the business,” a spokesperson at Waze told TechCrunch. The company tells me that it currently has over 47 million active users — more than double what it had in July last year when it reported 20 million.

“We won’t comment on speculation,” a Facebook spokesperson said.

However, if the rumors are true, adding Waze to Facebook makes a lot of sense in some respects: Facebook has been putting a lot of effort into its mobile business, which now has 751 million monthly active users as of March 31, 2013, an increase of 54% year-over-year. That puts mobile on a faster track at the moment than Facebook’s desktop business, which currently has 1.11 billion MAUs, an increase of 23% year-over-year….”

Mon May 6, 2013 8:47am ESTComments Off on Neiman Marcus May Go Public as Investors Look to Get Liquid337

“Private-equity firms TPG Capital and Warburg Pincus are exploring a sale or a public offering of Neiman Marcus Group, according to a Bloomberg News report late on Sunday.

The private-equity firms, which bought the Dallas-based retailer in 2005 for $5.1 billion, have interviewed banks and are about to hire Credit Suisse Group to run the dual track process, according to the report, which cited two people familiar with the situation.

Tue Apr 16, 2013 12:03pm ESTComments Off on Twitter Said to be in Talks with $VIA and NBC Universal for Content Sharing303

“Twitter is nearing an agreement with Viacom to host TV clips and sell advertising on the site,reports Bloomberg. It is also reportedly discussing a content partnership with Comcast’s NBCUniversal, and one or more of the deals could be reached by mid-May.

According to sources cited in the article, the partnerships would let Twitter stream videos on its site and split the resulting ad revenue with the networks. Twitter already has agreements in place with ESPN, Weather Channel LLC, and Turner Broadcasting System…..”

Tue Apr 16, 2013 12:00pm ESTComments Off on A Sneak Peak of the Next iPad379

“

Yet again, third-party accessory makers have revealed an upcoming iPad design.Alibaba.com is awash in cases for a redesigned iPad. Nearly every case is for a device that has a thinner bezel and slimmer profile. In short, the next iPad will look like the iPad mini — except, you know, just not mini.

This is the standard story line for Apple devices. Months before a major product is released, accessory makers start pumping and dumping cases. Most of the time these cases are rebadged and sold under a brand name. This process takes time, which is why the cases are available prior to the device launching.

This has happened for nearly every iDevice launch since the iPhone 4. Every iPad — full size or mini — was revealed prior to Apple’s announcement through case makers. And a good chunk of case makers display their wares on Alibaba.com…..”

“The U.S. Department of Defense will order 650,000 iOS devices to replace older BlackBerry devices that are incompatible with the new BlackBerry 10 operating system after the sequester is over, reports Electronista.

The DOD will order 120,000 iPads, 100,000 iPad minis, 200,000 iPod touches, and 210,000 various iPhones models. Electronista has been told that “more than half are headed to the battlefield, afloat, and to associated support commands. Most of the rest will stay [at the Pentagon].”

“Carl Icahn appears set to enter the fray over the leveraged buyout of Dell. Trading sources say they are confident that Icahn has amassed a position in Dell that may approach 100 million shares, and would bring him to a roughly 6 percent ownership. Icahn is expected to file a 13D on Dell very soon and has purchased control of his shares over the last two weeks as Dell’s shares have traded near $14.

When reached for comment, Icahn said he wouldn’t discuss Dell or any rationale he had for the investment. However, people familiar with the situation, said Icahn has met with advisors for Dell’s special Committee and urged them to pursue a leveraged recap of the computer maker—rather than the $13.65 a share leveraged buyout by Michael Dell and Silverlake that has been agreed to. Advisors to the special committee asked Icahn to sign a confidentiality agreement and join the go-shop process now being conducted by the special committee, but has yet to do so…..”

“We knew something had to be up with the resignation of Pope Benedict. After all, Popes don’t just resign; in fact, this is the first time a Pope has resigned in 600 years. Therefore, the hoopla surrounding this is more than understandable. However, as per usual with the Catholic Church, there seems to be a catch, and, lo and behold, it likely surrounds the infamous abuse scandals that have plagued the church’s image for so long.

It seems that with his resignation announced, the Pope, whose given name is Joseph Ratzinger, has a meeting with the Italian President, Giorgio Napolitano on February 23 to beg for immunity against prosecution for allegations of child sex crimes. Apparently, this hastily arranged meeting, and likely the resignation as well, are the result of a supposed note received by the Vatican from an undisclosed European government that stated that there are plans to issue a warrant for the Pope’s arrest. This letter was allegedly received on February 4, and Ratzinger resigned a week later. Now, there’s no way people can ignore how fishy this is. The first Pope to resign in 600 years does so after panicking about an impending arrest and in the midst of a hastily arranged meeting begging for protection from the Italian government? How they will keep people from connecting the two is beyond me. Chances are, the world will be popping popcorn and steadily watching.

Well, for once, the guy might not get off easy. The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and state calls upon the Italian President to deny help to Ratzinger, and to “not collude in criminality. Let’s just hope that Napolitano does not cave. However, there may be another avenue to make sure the Pope is brought to justice if the Italian President does cave…..”

Specifically, reports BI’s Jay Yarow, Misek says that Apple wanted to launch the larger model in October. But Apple’s screen suppliers were not able to manufacture enough screens in that timeframe:

Apple’s iPhone uses a technology called “in-cell,” which essentially meshes the touch screen with the glass screen into one thin display. Its partners can’t get good enough yields making those displays bigger to launch the iPhone 6 this year.

If Misek’s report is accurate (no guarantees, obviously–and given the steady stream of often-inaccurate reports about Apple’s future products, it’s best to regard it as a rumor), this is a major setback for Apple.

Samsung is currently gearing up for the launch of its next version of the Galaxy phone, which is expected this spring.

If Samsung does launch the new Galaxy this spring, and Apple can’t launch its own new phone until next year, Samsung may have as long as 9-12 months to market and sell a new phone that many consumers will consider obviously superior to Apple’s iPhone before Apple is even in the market with a big-screened phone….”

Shares of SNX traded higher by 0.21% or $0.08/share to $37.69. NYSE is trading at a price to book ratio of 1.04. This indicates that the shares are relatively cheap compared to book value which means the market is pricing in going concern value. The PEG is 0.88 suggesting that the shares are trading at an excellent value relative to firm’s growth rate. The price to sales ratio came in at 0.14. Hence, the firm is extremely cheap relative to its top line sales figures. On average, 153748 shares of SNX exchange hands on a given day and today’s volume is recorded at 657357. …”

“Signals out of the ultra-secretive executive suite at Apple increasingly point to an announcement soon of a dividend increase, buyback or another form of capital distribution to shareholders. The latest came from an analyst report Sunday.

“While trying to extract information fromAAPL (Apple) management is like squeezing ‘water from a rock,’ we did speak with AAPL CFO (Peter Oppenheimer) this past Friday and found the conversation helpful,” wrote ISI analyst Brian Marshall in a note to clients Sunday. “We touched upon a variety of topics, including capital allocation framework.”

After speaking with Oppenheimer, ISI’s Marshall recommended back to the company in Sunday’s report that it increases its current 3-year allocation plan amount to $60 billion from $45 billion. His plan, which would use 50 percent of the firm’s annual free cash flow, puts two-thirds of the cash toward a dividend and the rest to buy back shares.

Marshall’s conversation followed a rare press release Thursday from Apple, which came in response to a call from activist investor David Einhorn for the world’s largest technology company to issue preferred stock.

“By early last year, Apple’s cash balance had built to a point beyond what we needed to run our business and maintain flexibility to take advantage of strategic opportunities, so we announced a plan to return $45 billion to shareholders over three years,” stated the company in response to Einhorn. “Apple’s management team and Board of Directors have been in active discussions about returning additional cash to shareholders.” …”

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